Separatist rebel shot dead in Indonesia's Papua

Sunday, Feb 2, 2014

Sunday, Feb 2, 2014

JAKARTA - Indonesian security forces have shot dead a separatist rebel in the restive eastern province of Papua, police said on Sunday.

Acting on a tip-off, police and the military raided a gathering of members of the rebel Free Papua Movement (OPM) near a beach in the Yapen Waropen district on Saturday, Papua police spokesman Pudjo Sulistyo told AFP.

"They were involved in shooting incidents against police before and had caused unrest in the area," he said.

"We told them to surrender but they retaliated by shooting at us first. A firefight took place and we shot one of them dead," he added.

Eleven members were arrested and firearms were seized along with outlawed pro-independence Morning Star flags.

Three security officers were wounded in the gunbattle, Sulistyo said.

The OPM has since 1964 waged a low-level insurgency -- often using bows and arrows rather than guns -- against Indonesian rule over the resource-rich, ethnically Melanesian region.